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There was a time when candidates for higher office, regardless of their beliefs, wanted to pivot to the center in order to be as electable as possible. But in a polarized areas where all the action occurs in the primaries, there’s much less of an incentive to be moderate.

In Tennessee, Republican gubernatorial candidate Monty Fritts, a graduate of Liberty University and current state representative, is going to the extremes. Considering that a Republican nominee in a statewide election is all but guaranteed to win, Fritts is trying to move to the right of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the current frontrunner for governor who’s already a right-wing MAGA cultist.

Fritts said in a May interview with Nashville’s Phil Williams that he’s a proud “Christian Nationalist” who would support laws that violate any sense of religious pluralism.

… he acknowledged that he would like to outlaw Muslim calls to prayer and, if possible, ban Islam itself, along with Buddhism, Hinduism and “other pagan religions.” He wants to treat abortion as murder and would deny the morning-after pill to rape victims.

He would also outlaw same-sex marriage and criminalize some sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex.

“I just kinda boiled the two words down to a ‘Christian’ — I am that, I will not deny Christ — and I am a nationalist. I am an America-first, Tennessee-first person. So I didn’t think that was a detrimental term,” Fritts said, explaining his use of the term Christian nationalist.

When asked why enacting religiously driven policies is not effectively imposing his beliefs on others, Fritts said it comes down to wanting what is best for his fellow citizens.

“Well, again, it’s back to the we want the best for our fellow citizens,” Fritts said.

It’s not just that Fritts wants to impose Christianity on everyone in the state. It’s that he wants to impose his extremist version of Christianity, which, like so many other religious zealots, he believes is the only true form of the faith.

How did he rationalize banning Islam and the building of mosques? Simple, he argued. It’s not a religion at all because Muslims do not belong to “a movement of seeking God.” Therefore, it’s a political ideology. Even though he refused to use the same logic to go after Jews.

Fritts argued that Muslims are not protected under the First Amendment because, in his view, Islam is a political worldview rather than a true religion. Courts have repeatedly rejected that argument.

When asked whether his position would also apply to Judaism, since most Jewish people do not recognize Jesus as king, Fritts said he would not outlaw Judaism. He pointed to Messianic Jews — a group that combines Jewish identity with belief in Jesus — as a distinction, but declined to directly address the question of traditional Jewish practice.

“I think to to try to split the hair to get to to get me to say that, I’m not willing to say that,” Fritts said.

Fritts made that point while adding “I have friends that are, um, cultural Muslims.” (Fact-check needed.)

What happens, Williams asked, if the courts say all of this is unconstitutional?

“Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it,” Fritts responded.

In the meantime, Fritts has support anti-Muslim bigots. When a Texas massage therapist went viral for telling two Muslim women in a grocery store that they were “not welcome” in America because “this is not a Muslim country,” Fritts openly celebrated the therapist, saying, “most career… politicians are not willing to embrace America and Tennessee’s Christian heritage.”

The sad thing is that this kind of thinking is no longer on the fringes of the Republican Party. One Republican activist told the Times Free Press that the race is Blackburn’s to lose, given her polling advantage and name recognition, but Fritts could be a dark horse. The way he said it, though, was a bit revealing.

“I think definitely Marsha Blackburn — it’s hers to lose — I mean, she’s got such a strong lead. But I don’t really believe that John Rose and Monty Fritts could be at 15% total,” Robert said. “Monty Fritts has this huge kind of cult following.”

Indeed. You have to be part of a cult to be on Fritts’ side. And we know that because he’s been pushing extremist legislation while serving the past four years in the Tennessee State House.

A few years ago, Republicans tried passing a law that would allow county clerks to pull a Kim Davis and refuse to certify marriage licenses for anyone they oppose for religious or personal reasons. Fritts insisted this wasn’t about anti-gay bigotry at all; rathe he was just trying to protect old people.

“When you look at some of the research that we have found on this, that … young folks are trying to marry older folks to get to their financial accounts,” Fritts said. “I think there are other things that we need to do.”

Right. He wanted to stop the scourge of sugar babies. Even he didn’t want to admit what he was really thinking… which is to say he’s somehow gotten even more extremist since then.

He also co-sponsored an anti-abortion amendment that would have allowed Tennessee officials to execute women who have abortions along with any doctors who dared to help them.

He also wants to execute doctors who help transgender children.

More recently, Fritts posted a couple of campaign videos calling on Blackburn and their other GOP opponent to debate him, and they featured Dane Chisholm, an anti-Jewish (a “malevolent force throughout history”), pro-Hitler (“a great man!”), wildly racist (Black people should “return to Africa”) fan of Nick Fuentes.

Fritts have nothing to say about that association.

This is what the Republican Party has to offer the state of Tennessee. It’s not like Blackburn will be that much worse, though. Her positions are just as extreme, except she hasn’t openly called for the death of her ideological opponents.

Every political movement has its fringe extremists. What’s scary these days is that someone who openly fantasizes about outlawing entire religions, criminalizing same-sex relationships, executing doctors, and ignoring the Constitution isn’t immediately disqualified from serious consideration by his own party.

He’s not hiding any of this. He’s campaigning on it. But instead of becoming a political pariah, he’s praised as the sort of guy who has a “cult following.”

What does that say about today’s GOP? We already knew they were extremists, but the as Republicans fight to beat each other in primaries, they see the only path forward as being more extreme than everyone else in the race. (Just look at James Fishback in Florida.)

If advocating religious persecution, celebrating anti-Muslim harassment, and surrounding yourself with a Hitler admirer still leaves you with a viable statewide campaign, your party is fundamentally broken.

Marsha Blackburn is in no way the “safe” choice here. She’s not leading the polls because she’s a principled alternative to Fritts, but because she’s had years to hone her culture-war grievances and authoritarian impulses. Republicans in Tennessee know her and embrace her. And once Fritts loses, he’ll openly fight for her election. For now, though, when someone like him argues that Blackburn isn’t conservative enough, it says less about him than it does about how low the Republican Party will go.

The Tennessee gubernatorial primary will take place on August 6.